Nba, Kyrie Irving returns to train with the Brooklyn Nets

“Last night I couldn’t sleep: I missed basketball”. Kyrie is back. For the first time in over two months, Irving was seen on the Brooklyn Nets training floor with his teammates, working under the orders of Steve Nash. “I’ve never seen Kyrie not look like Kyrie,” said De’Andre Bembry, although Irving himself admits that this stunt was his first in two months with pros, “and it’s not the same as playing on the courts. from New Jersey ”as he has done since the Nets suspended him in mid-October because his unvaccinated status prevents him from playing home games.

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Irving was reinstated from Brooklyn in the height of the Covid emergency, when the Nets had up to 10 players in the protocol. However, he had to remain stationary for 10 days because the first of the swabs needed to return to work with his companions tested positive for coronavirus. Kyrie is still unvaccinated, which will continue to prevent him from playing the Nets home games (a decision that has already cost him $ 9.8 million): “I knew what the consequences of my decision would be, but I was not in the least prepared for address them – Kyrie said in his first meeting with journalists since 27 September -. I understand the choice Brooklyn made, the decision to suspend me. And I respect her. But I had to stop for a moment and reflect, see things from their perspective to fully understand what they were doing “.

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Kyrie tells how much he missed basketball, how much he missed the tension of the game. “I’m fine with picking up gradually, but I can’t hide: I can’t wait to play that first game, regardless of when it will be.” Yeah, but when will it be? Irving between now and the end of the season will be available for 21 or 22 games (if Blazers-Nets is recovered): in addition to the Barclays Center, matches at Madison Square Garden are off limits for him (where the Nets will play on February 16 and February 6). April) and those in Toronto (Canada does not allow unvaccinated people into the country, Brooklyn will go there on March 1st). The Nets with Philadelphia (where Kevin Durant returns after the 10 day break for Covid) begin a series of 7 home games out of 9: technically the first time Kyrie will be available is January 5 in Indiana, but coach Nash is in no hurry . “I don’t think it’s smart to rush his return – explains the Brooklyn coach -. There are 50 games left, he will play when he is ready. If it will be for January 5th in Indiana, fine, otherwise we will focus on the next one ”. There are many implications from Kyrie’s return: the fact that coach Nash will have to create two different rotations, one for home games and one for away games, the fact that he will have to manage a player who needs to put minutes in his legs but who has fewer games than the others available, the fact that, as unvaccinated, Irving must submit to a Covid protocol different from the others, which still prevents him, for example, from participating in team meetings or traveling by bus with vaccinated companions. These are problems that Brooklyn prefers to think about for now, because the goal is to win the title and, as he says, “we have to strike while the iron is hot”. Kyrie is back, that’s all that matters to the Nets for now.